Tourists warned not to feed the animals after plastic waste found in stomachs of several dead deer
Authorities in Japan’s ancient capital Nara are warning visitors not to feed the city’s wild deer – a major tourist attraction – after several of the animals died after swallowing plastic bags.
Large amounts of plastic waste were found in the stomachs of nine of 14 deer to have died since March, according to a local wildlife conservation group.
Continue reading...In Namibia a country of meat-lovers, vital expertise is needed to stop livestock spreading diseases
Wreathed in barbecue smoke, Vetjaera Haakuria gestures at the men butchering meat and cooking it over hot coals behind his back. “What have you learned about the risks of eating this?” he asks his young audience, spotless in their white lab coats. “It might contain drug residues, right? And what about diseases?”
It’s nearly noon in Windhoek, Namibia’s capital, and the market is preparing grilled meat – known locally as kapana – for the lunchtime rush. Everyone comes here, from construction workers to members of parliament. Namibians love to eat meat, and he is no exception: his tribe, the Herero, traditionally eat nothing else.
Continue reading...A sulphur-crested cockatoo named Snowball garnered YouTube fame and headlines a decade ago for his uncanny ability to dance to the beat of the Backstreet Boys. Now, researchers reporting in Current Biology are back with evidence that Snowball is not limited in his dance moves. Despite a lack of dance training, videos show, Snowball responds to music with diverse and spontaneous movements using various parts of his body
Continue reading...Hundreds of thousands of visitors attend the fiesta in Pamplona, Spain, many participating in the highlight event – the running of the bulls, or encierro
Continue reading...More police on duty as tourists descend on Spanish town to watch bulls and party
One man was gored and two sustained head injuries during the first run of the week-long San Fermín running of the bulls festival in Pamplona, northern Spain, on Saturday. The injuries were not life-threatening.
During the festival the population of the small city in Navarra swells tenfold as more than a million people come from around the world. Only about 20,000 over the course of the week dress up in the traditional red and white to pursue and be pursued by the bulls along Pamplona’s cobbled streets.
Continue reading...More than 1 million people are expected to attend the nine-day San Fermin event in the northern Spanish city
Partygoers and bull-running fans packed the main square in Pamplona on Saturday to cheer the launch of a firecracker which marks the start of the northern Spanish city’s annual San Fermin festival.
Decked out in white T-shirts and trousers stained pink by wine, the crowd danced and waved traditional red handkerchiefs bearing the image of the local patron saint, Fermin.
Continue reading...All eight of the circus’s tigers were impounded by police after tamer Ettore Weber was mauled to death
Four tigers have mauled to death their tamer in southern Italy, fuelling calls for a ban on the use of animals in circuses as parliament debates the issue.
Police said the 61-year-old tamer, Ettore Weber, was attacked by the tigers on Thursday during a training session in Triggiano, a small town in the Puglia region.
Continue reading...Marium, who is five months’ old, was rescued off Thailand’s southern Krabi province after she was separated from her mother
She eats sea grass, drinks milk from a rubber glove, snuggles up to passing canoes and frequently beaches herself. But these idiosyncrasies have not stopped an entire nation from falling in love with her.
Thailand has a new national sweetheart – an orphaned baby dugong called Marium.
Continue reading...Epic journey by female fox includes fastest movement rate for species ever recorded
An arctic fox has walked more than 3,500km (2,000 miles) from Norway to Canada in just 76 days, astonishing researchers at the Norwegian Polar Institute.
The animal, known as a coastal or blue fox, was fitted with a tracking device in July 2017. It left Spitsbergen in Norway’s Svalbard archipelago on 26 March 2018. After 21 days and 1,512 km out on the sea ice, it landed in Greenland on 16 April 2018. Its journey continued to Ellesmere Island in Canada, where it arrived on 1 July.
Continue reading...Emotional support animals, or ESAs, have exploded across the US in recent years, with rising numbers of pet owners getting their animals certified online. Unlike in the UK, ESAs have legal status in the US on a tier below traditional service animals, but the backlash has begun – with critics complaining the system is being abused by regular pet owners who want to take their animals into unsuitable public spaces. The Guardian's Richard Sprenger – animal lover but pet sceptic – meets ESA owners and their animals across North America.
Continue reading...Zimbabwe, Botswana, Zambia, Angola and Namibia call for embargo suspension to allow sale of hugely valuable stockpiles
Southern African leaders have renewed calls for a lifting of the ban on the ivory trade as debate over the “unfair” embargo escalates.
At a wildlife economic summit in Zimbabwe, leaders of the five countries that make up the Kavango-Zambezi conservation area – Zimbabwe, Botswana, Zambia, Angola and Namibia – raised the issue ahead of the August conference of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) in Geneva, Switzerland.
Continue reading...A bug-eyed, dreadlocked pooch called Scamp the Tramp took top honours on Friday at the 31st annual World's Ugliest Dog contest. Scamp beat 18 other contestants at the event, held in Northern California. Organisers say the contest is about bringing attention to the needs of rescue dogs.
Continue reading...Scamp the Tramp, a bug-eyed, dreadlocked pooch, took top honours on Friday at the 31st annual World’s Ugliest Dog Contest.
Owner Yvonne Morones won an appearance with Scamp on the Today show, $1,500 in cash, $1,500 to donate to an animal shelter and a trophy the size of a rottweiler.
Continue reading...Study marks worst winter on record for beekeepers, despite intensive push to stem losses
Beekeepers across the US lost four in 10 of their honeybee colonies over the past year, as the worst winter on record for tracked bee populations raised fresh concerns over the plight of the crucial pollinators.
Over the past winter, 37% of honeybee colonies were lost to beekeepers, the worst winter decline recorded in the 13-year history of a nationwide survey aimed at charting bees’ fortunes. Overall, 40% of colonies died off over the entire year to April, which is above the 38% average since the survey began.
Continue reading...Residents of Norilsk in northern Siberia have been stunned by the sight of a starving polar bear hundreds of miles from its natural Arctic habitat. People captured footage of the bear as it searched a garbage dump for food. The climate crisis has been damaging polar bears’ sea-ice habitats and forced them to scavenge more for food on land, bringing them into contact with humans and inhabited areas
Continue reading...Humane killing practices are virtually unknown in the majority of Thailand’s abattoirs, say campaigners, with millions of pigs dying in pain
All photographs by Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals
Warning: this article includes some graphic images that some readers may find distressing
Photos of shirtless workers clubbing pigs with bats in a Thai slaughterhouse have prompted campaigners to call for wider training and monitoring of humane welfare practices.
Undercover images taken in the central Thailand abattoir and shared with the Guardian also shows workers stunning the animals on their eyes with what appear to be homemade stunning machines, contrary to equipment recommendations.
Continue reading...Pepperdine professor photobombed by lobster mobster bird happy to see picture of roll reversal go viral
Alicia Jessop knew Friday was going to be memorable, but she didn’t realize it would be a day she would never forget.
Related: 'We live in a lobstocracy': Maine town is feeling the effects of climate change
Continue reading...Experts say region is losing the battle to stop the biggest animal disease outbreak the planet has ever faced
South-east Asia is battling to contain the spread of highly contagious African swine fever, known as “pig Ebola”, which has already led to the culling of millions of pigs in China and Vietnam.
African swine fever, which is harmless to humans but fatal to pigs, was discovered in China in August, where it has caused havoc, leading to more than 1.2m pigs being culled. China is home to almost half of the world’s pigs and the news sent the global price of pork soaring.
Continue reading...‘Other than being a bit cold and a bit smelly he still had a full appetite,’ rescuer says
A miniature donkey has caused a stink after falling into a large septic tank, sparking a challenging rescue north of Brisbane.
Firefighters were called to a Morayfield property on Thursday night after its panicked owners called to say their donkey had tumbled into the concrete tank and was wedged firmly inside.
Continue reading...Swiss expert behind successful reintroduction in Bavaria is training UK conservationists
“If any beast has the devil’s strength in him it is the wildcat,” wrote a 15th-century hunting author – but historic persecution has brought the wildcat to the brink of extinction in Britain.
Now there is a new attempt to breed hundreds of wildcats in captivity and return the shy animal to England and Wales, where it has not roamed for 150 years.
Continue reading...